Mercury and Venus at dusk



I spent some quality time on my balcony last night
with my old C8 and guests Mercury and Venus.

Venus is obvious. I've been routinely seeing it a couple
of hours before sunset, and have followed it this
apparition from a small nearly-full object to the growing
half phase it is now.

Mercury took a bit of doing. I couldn't see it naked-eye,
so I scanned the ecliptic with binoculars to see where
it was. With some landmarks from the binoculars I
reacquired the tiny spark in the scope's finder, then
threw enough magnification at it to see a tiny off-white
half phase planet.

It was a school night so I didn't do Jupiter or Saturn.
They'll keep until the weekend...

Laura Halliday VE7LDH "Que les nuages soient notre
Grid: CN89mg pied a terre..."
ICBM: 49 16.05 N 122 56.92 W - Hospital/Shafte

.



Relevant Pages

  • Re: Venus visible in daylight
    ... Venus is easy to see in a clear blue ... sky as long as you know approximately where to look. ... and bright, at 0740, well after sunrise this morning 5 October. ... binoculars then! ...
    (uk.sci.astronomy)
  • Re: Venus visible in daylight
    ... Venus is easy to see in a clear blue sky as long as you know approximately where to look. ... Clearly visible and bright, at 0740, well after sunrise this morning 5 October. ... I was looking for Andromeda last night through 10x50 binoculars. ...
    (uk.sci.astronomy)
  • Re: Venus in Daylight?
    ... > sounds lit it was Venus you saw John. ... > daylight so long as you can find it. ... reflecting sun glare. ... the sky with a decent pair of binoculars. ...
    (uk.sci.astronomy)
  • Re: Did anybody observe this yesterday evening (20:10 UTC)?
    ... my husband who did not have binoculars saw it just ... I observed something strange yesterday evening what I have never seen. ... It was even brighter than Venus, stable, without any movement for about 15 ... Did anybody else observe this yesterday evening? ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)
  • Re: The sun through CD "filters"
    ... > These loonies are advocating people view the sun and venus using CD's as ... > filters. ... they suggest using them taped to the front of binoculars. ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)